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[Jeremyc]

I understand addressing but I am lost when it comes to routing so this is hopefully an easy question.

I have AT&T UVerse at my house which is creating all of the known challenges. I need to be able to prevent wireless devices from connecting to explicit materials but UVerse will not allow me to change the DNS servers on the RG due to requirements of their TV setup. I have disabled wireless on my RG and will use my Dir-655 instead. I have configured the Dir-655 DHCP server to assign addresses and the required DNS server to lock down the browsing. That is working well. The DIR-655 is connected through the WAN port to the UVerse RG.

The problem: Laptops connected to the DIR-655 can not resolve PC's connected to the Uverse RG by name (only IP) due to the fact that they are on different subnets. I can not connect all of the PC's to the Dir-655 due to wiring limitations in the house. I know that I can give the PC's on the Uverse static IP's and then setup hosts files so that the wireless devices to see them, but then I will have to do the same any time a new laptop comes into the house.

Is there a way to setup the DIR-655 to allow name resolution across the WAN port? I have turned on NetBIOS announcement and Learn NetBIOS from LAN without effect.

DIR-655 is revision A2 with 1.35NA firmware.

Thanks for your help.

- Jeremy

[Hard Harry]

Well your kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you want to use DNS on your DIR-655 to control content, then you need to use that DNS across your entire LAN for the DIR-655. Think of it like this, PCs on your 655's LAN need to resolve domans for IP for PC's in your ATT gateway's LAN just like they would need to resolve domains on the internet. They are just different kind of servers. What kind of networking are you doing on your LAN? Streaming? Printer sharing? If there is a answer to this, I think coming up with a different protocol to network those devices will be the trick.

[Jeremyc]

Thanks for the response. I am pretty sure that I understand the issue that you called out, but I want to make sure. On the local subnet, local name resolution occurs, then DNS lookup, correct? Once I leave the local subnet, the computer will only look to the DNS server? I guess my question was whether there was a way to do local name resolution across two subnets (assuming some sort of name broadcast occurs to allow for local resolution) that I could pass across the router. It sounds like that is not possible based on your response.

Local resources that I would need to route include 1 network printer, 3 PC's that would need file and media sharing, and one home server that I use for PC backup and media sharing. Most of these items would work fine using the hosts file approach which sounds like it is probably the best way to go.

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate.

- Jeremy

[Hard Harry]

Ok, before I go over the several Ideas I have, could you explain the problem your trying to solve? You say " can not resolve PC's connected to the Uverse RG by name (only IP)". Why would Computer A need to Connect to Computer B on your network by domain? Are we talking streaming? File sharing? A server? Printer?  Also, why cant you just put your DNS on Primary, and their DNS on secondary? That way it only queries the secondary if the first one fails to resolve. Is the DNS locked down? Or does changing it just break something? The ideas are spinning, just looking for data to focus in.

[Jeremyc]

Sorry, I knew that my explanation was probably going to create confusion. Let me try to explain the network setup. There is no domain and I am simply trying to allow name resolution to work within my home lan where I am using two seperate routers. DNS only plays a role for resolving names outside of my LAN, not for local machines. I called it out because I need to specify a different DNS server for the wireless devices (for filtering). Since I do not have a DNS server on my lan, and all addresses are private, DNS should not be used for local name resolution.

Router 1: Uverse RG
- PC1 - Windows Home Server
- PC2 - Windows 7
- PC3 - Windows 7
- Brother Printer - Network connected
- Uverse Set Top Boxes

Router 2: Dlink DIR-655
- Laptop 1 - Windows 7
- Laptop 2 - Windows 7
- Laptop 3 - Windows 7
- Cell Phones, WII, Other wireless devices

R2 WAN Port connects to a port on R1. R1 uses DHCP for the wired machines and for the WAN side of R2. R2 uses DHCP on a seperate subnet.

Problem: Because Laptop 1 is on a different subnect than PC1, I can not connect between the two by machine name. Instead, I have to use the IP address to connect.

Does this clarify the issue? If not, perhaps I can attach a network diagram that will explain it better than I can.

Thanks again for looking into this.

[davevt31]

Can you turn off DHCP on the 655 and let the Uverse one hand out all the addresses?  Treat the 655 as more like an AP instead of a router.

[Jeremyc]

Yes I can - that was actually the original setup. I am using the DHCP server on the 655 because I want to use a different DNS server and the RG will not allow me to change it. I am using a different DNS server to provide a content filter for the wireless machines.

Thanks for the idea though.

[davevt31]

Manually enter the DNS server that you want to use on the client machines. You can have auto IP and manual DNS settings.